It's been done before for games in Holland, such as against Ajax in Feb 2003, but since then Wenger has steadfastly refused to allow Dennis to travel away in Europe, even to games that are quite close. "When you make a player travel as far as that, you have to be sure at the start that you will play him because seven hours' travel is sometimes tricky if you want to make changes to your plans at the last second," Le Boss says today.

But the fact that we'll be missing both Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie gives us few options. And it's also worth pointing out that travelling to Amsterdam shouldn't take that much longer than going up north to somewhere like Middlesbrough or Newcastle for a Premiership match.

Another fact that I've not seen mentioned is that it'd be great for Dennis to have a trip back to the Amsterdam Arena in what is surely going to be his last season before retirement. Dennis has admitted just a couple of weeks ago that he can't see himself carrying on at Arsenal after this season, and he's said before on several occasions that when he leaves Arsenal he'll be leaving football (on the playing side, at least).

But Wenger says he'll leave the decision as late as possible. It makes sense to focus first on the Premiership games against Birmingham and West Ham, but let's hope Dennis can be rested in the latter match on Saturday 24th, and sent back to Holland in advance of the rest of the squad. He deserves it, and Arsenal will probably need him.

Wenger's post match comments following last night's nerve-wracking win also, inevitably, focus on van Persie's sending off, describing it as "an unpleasant surprise and the wrong decision". He went on to say, "It was not Robin's fault - there was no purpose. He wanted to play the ball. He got a high ball and never saw the opponent, never looked somewhere else other than at the ball - it was an accident. For me, it is never a red card."

Thun boss Urs Schonenberger admitted it was unlucky for van Persie.

It is of course debatable whether or not van Persie would have started against Ajax anyway, given the bad summer he's had in Holland and the fact that Ajax fans hated him already. The game was always going to be a big test for his temperament. No question in my mind which Dutchman is right for this job....